1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a container and, more particularly, to a multi-purpose container capable of transporting both a one-way bulk powdered and granular load and a one-way liquid load. The container is suitable for use on rail, road or sea, and it can be constructed so as to be suitable for rail, road or sea transport.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Conventional bulk containers have limited use. Such containers have been constructed so as to be suitable exclusively for one goods or commodities, such as coal, cement, oils or the like. In instances where a railroad car carrying such conventional container transports heavy oils from the oil station to a cement factory, a suitable powdered good return load is not available so that it should travel back from its original destination empty. This is extremely ineconomical from the point of view of operating transportation and saving labor.
It is known of a multi-purpose container such as a hopper, a tank or any other container or receptacle, in which the container body is divided into a plurality of compartments by means of a movable membrane element or elements and in which the membrane element is constructed so as to move towards a predetermined position to provide a necessary space for the compartment into which goods or commodities are loaded. Such containers are generally provided with an inverted V-shaped bottom so as to slide the load downwardly along the both inclined or sloped side surfaces of the upwardly raised central bottom portion in air slide discharge manner and discharge it from an outlet situated at the lowest points of the bottom. This construction, however, gives a dead space under the upwardly raised central bottom portion so that an efficiency in loading is encountered.
It has also been proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 16,181/1980 that the container body is divided into plural compartments by means of a rubber element, in which the compartment to be loaded therein is constructed so as to expand and accommodate the load by the introduction of compressed air. The container of this type can transport different kinds of liquids or powdered materials or a combination of a liquid with a powdered or granulated commodities as back and forth loads so that it can provide a favorable transportation efficiency. This construction, however, presents a drawback that a manhole for filling or loading bulk powdered or granular commodities cannot be rendered large because the compartment for the load is constructed in air-tight manner so as to expand the rubber element by means of compressed air. A small manhole requires a laborious operation for loading bulk materials and consequently a longer time for loading. Although it is possible to render the manhole larger by providing it with a lid, various problems will be encountered that the weight of the lid should be increased to stand against the pressure applied by the compressed air and that the air-tight structure is accordingly rendered complicated.